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My daughter is learning about America in the 1700's in her Social Studies class. I helped her gather material for a project. I enjoyed looking over the historical facts as we perused her library books.
It was fun and quite interesting as the review was invigorating. I was so proud of our founding fathers, the gumption, the absolute bravery, the unwillingness to waver, in our American Revolution.
And then it hit me, as I recalled how young our country still is, and how far we've fallen-no tumbled, slipped and skidded completely away from what they had designed for us originally. It may be a duh moment for a lot of you, but it is still poignant and important to reiterate that WE THE PEOPLE are living on what seems like completely foreign soil and that we might as well be on Mars, for this is not the country Ben Franklin , Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, etc. had in mind for us at all.
It took me by surprise because I realized it was a long gone dream, almost like a fantasy. You look at the present, and you wonder, were our beginnings actually revolutionary? You mean we actually stood up for ourselves and won?!
It all seems like a grand fabrication.
It's so much more than those wonderful old guys are most certainly rolling over in their graves. It's more than just the fact that it's only been 231 years and a few months, and we've totally trashed the place.
It's a tragedy that knows no words, a wound so deep, and the shame is mountainous and profound.
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